Hundreds of legal actions are facing lengthy delays because of a shortage of High Court judges, it emerged yesterday.
Mr Justice Kelly, who manages the list of non-jury and judicial review cases in the High Court, said a serious situation had developed in relation to that list.
The judge pointed out that the former president of the High Court, Mr Justice Morris, had retired, while Mr Justice Quirke and Mr Justice Smith had been assigned to other responsibilities outside the daily courts. None of those three judges had been replaced.
He also noted that Mr Justice Smyth was dealing almost full-time with the refugee list in which hundreds of cases were awaiting hearing; Mr Justice Murphy was hearing a series of legal actions involving Mr Larry Goodman and the former Master Meats founder, Mr Paschal Phelan; and much of Mr Justice O'Neill's work related to appeals against awards made by the hepatitis C tribunal.
These and other factors had led to a situation where there were 140 judicial review and 100 non-jury cases, and 60 motions, awaiting trial.
There were only two judges available to deal with those matters, and there was no way they could get through all of them in the next court term, Mr Justice Kelly said. In light of that, he cautioned barristers and solicitors that there would be no hearing dates available next term for many cases.
